Wasteland 2 - Delay All About Making Choice Matter

July 31st, 2013, 03:30

Rock,Paper,Shotgun talks with inXile about the delay of Wasteland 2 and other topics.

The fact that Kickstarter chipped in nearly three times the game’s original budget hasn’t hurt, either. In fact, it’s enabled Fargo and co’s “risky” behaviors in multiple ways, allowing for a rather massive boost in scope and ensuring that the game’s already paid for. Sales are just an (admittedly very nice) bonus.

“We over-funded,” Fargo boasted, beaming. “I don’t make any money from this. Me, I want to make a game that people talk about the way they do Fallout and Wasteland, 10 or 20 years from now. I’m only focused on that and what I have to do to make sure it hits all the points I know work for the game.”

He then fast-balled further examples. What if, for instance, you disobey Ranger orders to the point of becoming a liability? You become a pariah. Your own organization turns on you, hunts you. The entire game changes. And then, of course, there’s the extra-colossal, radiation-mutated elephant in the room: you can kill anyone, anytime. And sometimes – for example, if a party member won’t stop selling your stuff for booze money – you might have to.

“Remember: you can shoot or kill anybody in the whole game,” Fargo interjected. “That in itself [is huge]. If someone joins your party, you can kick them out, kill them, whatever you want. There’s whole sequences you’re not gonna see later because you offed the guy. We just deal with it. There’s no replacement – no NPC that joins you and acts just like him functionally. He’s out. You’re just not gonna see it.”

he makes it seem like a bad thing to off some1
that kinda attitude makes me feel sad (. It should reward you for killing people, it should reward your every decision > not underline You're not gonna see it!

Originally Posted by borcanu
It should reward you for killing people, it should reward your every decision

Sure, you may wish that you hadn’t killed off certain NPCs because you’ll lose whole swathes of gameplay… but that’s your choice… and bad decisions should result in consequences, not rewards. If you would prefer an on-the-rails RPG, look elsewhere… there are plenty to choose from. Besides, you won't miss anything… Just play as a good guy, making the best possible choices; Then as a murderous thug on your second playthrough, killing everything that moves.

I remember after Ultima 7 was released, some guy on the Origin BBS boasted about killing every NPC in the game, and dumping their bodies into one room. Why would someone do such a thing? Who cares… it was great that the game allowed the player that kind of freedom; Wasteland 2 sounds like that type of game. Bring it on!

You can't expect to be able to kill any character with no negatives. That being said there may be times you feel that it is worth it. The fact that you can make the choice AND that it has consequences is what makes choice worthwhile.

Originally Posted by Vindicator
I remember after Ultima 7 was released, some guy on the Origin BBS boasted about killing every NPC in the game, and dumping their bodies into one room. Why would someone do such a thing? Who cares… it was great that the game allowed the player that kind of freedom; Wasteland 2 sounds like that type of game. Bring it on!

That's awesome, my favorite memories of playing the original Fallouts were while role-playing as some morally-bankrupt mercenary. I think I must have somehow known what was going to happen near the end of the original game. I remember storming Vault 13 with a shotgun and some leather armor on a mission to gun down the Overseer, taking out every vault citizen that crossed my path. Of course I never made past him.

Originally Posted by Merin
I'm not the kind of player who'll ever take the option of killing off random characters, just to do it.

That said…

the fact that the game is designed to react to that bodes well. I am glad to hear that level of C&C exists.

My younger brother killed a lot of kids in Fallout 2 - and then he got bad reputation and child killer "perk" and so many other NPC were straight away hostile towards him through the rest of the game. He was silly, but if the game allows you to do such a thing it only means that the game is great for gamers!

Originally Posted by Vindicator
I remember after Ultima 7 was released, some guy on the Origin BBS boasted about killing every NPC in the game, and dumping their bodies into one room. Why would someone do such a thing? Who cares… it was great that the game allowed the player that kind of freedom; Wasteland 2 sounds like that type of game. Bring it on!

I didn't think you could kill Lord British?

I remember you could create a spell that killed everything.. LB remained alive and was pretty ticked off.

Originally Posted by screeg
Did you just suggest that Avadon 2 might be a better game? It's entirely subjective of course.

Well, I very much enjoyed the first Avadon and Avernum: Escape from the Pit. It could very well end up being a superior game to Wasteland 2, but we will just have to wait and see I loved Shadowrun Returns, but the main campaign was very short and linear; That and the lack of a save function, leads me to think that it probably won't be the overall best RPG of the year. We also have Eschalon Book 3, but I've not played Book 1 or 2 yet, so I can't really comment on that. Dead State and Underrail could be good too.